A fun day at the beach turned very costly for a woman who took her family on a trip to California’s Pismo Beach and ended up getting slapped with an $88,000 fine.
Charlotte Ross tells KABC-TV that her kids collected what they thought were seashells, but turned out to be clams — 72 to be exact.
Ross says that as they were leaving the beach, she was slapped with the $88,000 ticket.
It turns out clamming is strictly regulated, and for a good reason: Lt. Matthew Gil with the Department of Fish and Wildlife tells the outlet, “We have to let them get to four-and-a-half inches so they can spawn, so they can have offspring every year, and they have juvenile clams.”
There was somewhat of a happy ending for Ross, who explained what happened to a judge and got the fine reduced.
Now she’ll only have to shell out $500.